As you drive across the Yorkshire Dales or other areas of Yorkshire you often come across standing crosses outside church yards, on village greens, along ancient routeways or in market squares. These free standing upright stone structures were mostly erected during the medieval period up to the 1500’s, although many have been repaired or replaced more recently.

All these Bars would have once had a Barbican. This was an extra level of fortification to help create a barrier before a primary gateway into the city. It comes from the French word “Barbacane” – which means fortified outpost. In Medieval city gateways they usually took the form of narrow walled passageway (known as a funnel), where if attackers breached the first outer gateway, the defenders could attack them from above on the surrounding outer walls. This passageway was so

The first Leeds Infirmary was built in 1771 in what is now Infirmary Street, but in 1863, construction started on a new LGI on George Stree

On a recent tour my corporate guests had a three hour meeting in Wakefield, so after dropping them off I had time to kill. As well as...

York Minster is unique in the fact that it holds over 60% of all the medieval stained glass in England and the largest collection of...

I regularly stop for lunch at Simonstone Hall on my way up and over Buttertubs during my tours of the Yorkshire Dales. My guests are...

With lockdown restrictions starting to ease, I have been lucky over the past week, to have completed 3 virtual tours of York for US...

With the stay at home restriction being released on the previous Monday, I was desperate to get out and back up to the Yorkshire Dales....

I have loved fossil hunting since being a child and over the years with my kids I have spent hours scouring the beaches around Staithes...

Riding on the coat tails of smash-hit period dramas such as BBC’s Downtown Abbey and ITV’s Victoria, Netflix released its own romp...

A recent socially distanced afternoon walk with my old rugby pal Tim and his vizsla Max involved a walk I had not done before, up to the...

The story of Markenfield Hall is a fascinating one. This medieval moated manor house situated on the outskirts of Ripon, really is one of...

This is a good lockdown leg stretch with a few short climbs to get your lungs going. A pal of mine Lee from Burnley (over on the...

As a fan of the gentle BBC TV comedy series The Detectorists with Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones playing Andy and Lance, two hapless...

It’s no secret amongst my friends that I am a fan of Timothy Taylor’s beers – with Landlord and Boltmaker being particular favourites....

Last year, I was contacted by a property company who had just completed part of a new development of apartments in the Hungate area of...

With lockdown restrictions lifted I decided to get up early and take a hike up Whernside with my wife and faithful black lab Bronte. I...

An hours wait at Auto Windscreens in Middleton, Leeds was spent exploring the local area on foot and finally getting to visit The...

I often guide in Hull and Beverley, with the stunning gothic Beverley Minster a “must see” stop on my tours. Close to the Altar in the...

Being so close to the Minster – St Michael le Belfrey on High Petergate in York often gets overlooked, but it has a wonderful history in...